Location Base Marketing & Geofencing

Is this technology affordable for NGO’s?

Geofencing marketing is getting very popular because small business with small budgets are using it. This is perfect for local unique stores and organizations that need to market their products and services to a surrounded community.

If the organization is used to advertise in social media, this technology uses the same measurement concepts for evaluation (impressions, cost per clicks, reach etc.).

Geofencing falls under the umbrella of programmatic display advertising, which traditionally does not charge by the click, such as other cost per click models like Google AdWords and Bing Ads or even Facebook and Instagram.  Instead, it is charged by the impression.  CPM stands for Cost per 1,000 impressions.

Impressions are when an advertisement or any other form of digital media renders on a user’s screen. Impressions are not action-based and are merely defined by a user potentially seeing the advertisement, making CPM campaigns ideal for businesses intent on spreading brand awareness.

So, when you hear someone quote you $15.00/CPM, they are saying the cost to you will be $15.00 per 1,000 Impressions served.

Some people will charge based on the number of geofences you’re requesting. You cannot ask for a $1,000 spend and then submit 1,000 geofences.  It’s time consuming to upload those geofences and your budget will be exhausted relatively quickly. It is recommended that for every $1,000/month campaign budget, consider 10 – 20 geofences to target.  So, if you get people trying to charge a lot for additional geofences, be sure to ask what other concessions you can get if they do plan on charging per geofence.

What do you get for the $ CPM?

Please note that even if you have some basic experience advertising on social media, in geofencing you will need to hire a company to do it for you and the quote will always come as a CPM rate. Then you need to ask the questions, what else am I getting if I pay this particular CPM rate?  Here are some critical questions worth asking your provider:

  • Is it a self-serviced platform?  Meaning, do I have to teach myself and my team how to navigate through the platform and launch campaigns for clients, or can I have a team do that for me.
  • Is the provider team also going to handle all creative ad development for me or is that a separate fee I have to pay for?
  • What does the analytics and reporting dashboard look like?  Will I get 24/7 access to report?

If your organization considers investing on geofencing for a local community with about 10 to 20 fences and synchronized advertising on social media and websites, you might be able to do it from about $2000 a month, just make sure you have completed your community assessment and know very well your targeted audience.

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